Beyond The Light
by Sarah Rose Serena
Summary: 13 years is a long time. Eternity is longer. Krista betrayed his trust & prompted Marcus to abandon her. But unforeseen circumstances has him returning. When hope is gone, he is the only one that can save her from an immortal's death. But will he? Or will he let her suffer for spite? Even he cannot say for sure.
1. Chapter 1

**B****eyond The Ligh****t**

a _BLADE_ story

* * *

**One**

_"I want you by my side, Krista."_

_"Are you sure that's where you want me, Marcus?"_

_"Since the moment we met."_

_"Strange, because I was trying to kill you when we met."_

_"And I was intent upon having you."_

_"Funny how things turn out ..."_

* * *

Funny indeed ...

Krista Starr was never one to be weakened by unwanted emotions. Until her brother Zach was murdered and she was thrust into a world of deceit, pain, and vampires.

It seemed like so long ago now. So much had happened. From losing her mother to fighting so hard to avoid succumbing to her own bloodlust. Then falling in love with not only her brother's killer ... but her own.

Krista could surely say without a doubt that meeting Marcus van Sciver had been the catalyst that turned her life into one never-ending nightmarish fight for survival. Sometimes she was battling it out with other vampires, human hunters, or the Daywalker, but even as those fights quelled she was always amidst a constant battle inside herself.

She was teetering on a knife's edge. Fall one way and land with Blade and his crusade against the man she loved and the underworld she despised yet now was so much a part of. Or fall the other way and sacrifice her revenge, her morality, all of her beliefs, and belong to Marcus forever. If she could forget the past than maybe she could be happy with that alternative. But being with Marcus devotedly would mean letting go of everything she'd barely managed to hold onto ... her humanity. She'd finally have to take that last step and fully belong to his world ... _her_ world.

It wasn't until tonight, right now, standing with Marcus in the moonlight among the ruins of Blade's hideout that she'd finally consented to herself. She'd finally been ready to let go of resistance and accept the hand she'd been dealt. But fate has always been a fickle bitch to Krista Starr.

"Let me ask you a question, Marcus," she said softly, trailing after him through the ashes of Blade's would-be haven. "How did you find this place to begin with?"

Marcus spun to look back at her, running his hand along the burnt furniture he walked past. "Blade has a network of informants, people working on both sides of the fence. Last week, we intercepted a call and let the informant lead us straight here."

"Hm," she murmured absently, feeling drowsy as the adrenaline from their earlier violence wore off, to be replaced by fading pain and aches. She stepped the distance and leaned into his hand as he trailed it along her cheek, brushing sticky tendrils of chestnut hair back from her face.

"Now I have one question for you," he told her quietly, his icy eyes flipping from soft and loving to hardened and enraged in an instant. His hand slid down to grip the curve of her neck, the other fisting in the hair at the base of her skull and using it to rip her head back harshly. Krista let out a surprised cry of pain as he towered over her. "How long have you been working with Blade?"

Krista's eyes filled with horror. She panted softly, wincing at the grasp, and forced herself not to struggle. With his hands around her neck, Krista didn't need any prompting to make her fear for her life. Even a vampire couldn't survive a clean break of the spinal column. And she'd watched Marcus offer more than one swift and unexpected death that way. She had no reason to believe he would have any qualms whatsoever with doing the same to her. Though it hurt her heart to believe such a thing, Krista was never one to be naïve when life hung in the balance.

"Marcus," she gasped, her fingertips digging into his wrist as he held onto her, his gaze unmerciful and his grip punishing.

Before she could think of words to give him, she was flung across the room. Her body crashed into a cement pillar, cracking it, and she tumbled limply to the ground. Footsteps echoed around her, pounding through her head with the force of a thousand freight trains. Krista forced her broken body to move, to support her weight as she pushed up into a seated position against the pillar. She looked up slowly, her eyes rolling up to lock with his.

He approached with a languid grace that belied the turmoil swirling in his gaze. His face was held tightly in control, almost perfectly stoic, as he looked down at her from above. "I trusted you implicitly, Krista ... against my better judgment." He buried his hands in his trouser pockets and held himself calmly. There was a sadness there, underlying, against the rage and betrayal. It was in his voice, in his soft sigh, in his eyes as he gazed down at her. "I wanted you by my side ... for eternity. And this is how you repay me?"

"What did you expect?" she cried. Her fingers clenched in the dirty cement below her, pain lancing out and radiating like echoes bouncing off cave walls through her body. Beyond the physical pain, there was the emotional tsunami. So much fear and hurt and shame and justification and righteousness and love and anger and guilt, all battling it out for a reigning position in her control. "You took everything from me, Marcus. And then you asked me to be grateful!" Krista cut herself off before her voice broke. It was shaky enough. _She_ was shaky enough.

Marcus crouched down before her bent head and brushed her hair back, tucking it behind her ear, then cupped her chin roughly and forced her face up to him. "How long," he reiterated, "have you been working with Blade?"

She sighed heavily, her eyes never turning away from his, her chin held insolently high. "I met him while I was looking for Zack's killer." Her eyes hardened as the memories resurfaced. "He led me to you ..."

Something defiant slipped past Marcus's mask and flickered over his sharp features before he pulled back from her and fisted his hands at his sides. "You were betraying me from the very beginning, since before I even turned you," he said thoughtfully, his eyes off in a void above her.

"Afterward, he approached me that same day with the serum that he takes to keep his bloodlust in check, said I could have it and keep my control, as long as I helped him."

"You've been on his serum ever since?"

"Yes." She looked down and bit her lip, hands digging into the cement again. "Pretty much ... I stopped taking it a little over a week ago."

"A week." Marcus frowned, shaking his head, struggling to retain impassivity. He hardened again and turned on her with unforgiving eyes. "Did you know of Chase's betrayal?"

"No." She shook her head as vehemently as she could manage through the pain. Even as her wounds healed with the preternatural ability of her kind, Krista was still a ways from recuperated. But she recognized what this was as giving her time to recover. And she was grateful. She couldn't face him this weak. Even without any physical struggle.

"Your betrayal was ..." he trailed off in thought, struggling again, before refocusing and continuing. "Your betrayal was understandable, Krista, but still inexcusable." He came to his feet and looked down at her with an air of superiority that had her hackles rising. "Tell me, why should I not kill you now?"

Krista took in a deep breath, however shuddery, and braced herself. Raising her chin, she met his gaze with brave stubbornness. "What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know." He shook his head, almost sadly. "Something. Something brilliant that might give me pause. Might save you. Something that might justify my reluctance to end your life ..."

It came without thinking. "I love you." This made him falter. She was sincere, more sincere than she'd ever been with him, and it startled his calm, shook his already wavering control. But she wasn't done. Definitely didn't believe it was enough. "Whatever you want to believe, I did the best that I could. And in the end ... I did choose you."

"Quite belated, don't you think?"

Krista sighed deeply then and braced her trembling body as she forced herself to her feet and stood before him. "I'm not going to beg you, Marcus. You do what you need to."

A fleeting frozen moment of emotion slid past them as they stared at one another, lost in darkness, circling blindly in thoughts and feelings and memories and decisions.

Finally, he broke the pained intimacy and released a slow breath of resignation. Taking a marked step backward, Marcus regarded her now with stiff caution. No passion left as he looked at his lover. There was only cold acceptance. "Go."

"Marcus—" She took a step for him. Then froze.

"Go now, Krista. Leave this city and never return. If I ever see you again ... I will not hesitate to finish what I should be finishing tonight."

She tore her eyes from him and backed away into the shadows as he watched her go, her face only crumpling into dark despair once she was sure he could not see her. She raced off, leaping from rooftop to rooftop as she scoured the city in tears, gaining distance. What was she looking for? What was she doing? She wanted to go back. She wanted to fall to her knees and beg him not to make her go. She didn't want to be alone. Exiled. She was terrified of the mere thought of it.

She didn't know what to do without him. And she had no idea how she'd become this person.

This broken woman. This defective monster.

* * *

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Two**

* * *

_13 Years Later_

"Krista ..." A soft voice called for her, dragging her from her cold and unforgiving dreams, basking her in soft light and a child's lullaby voice. A hand stroked down the side of her face, leaving a sticky trail of residue she immediately scented as blood.

Krista's eyes fluttered open to be greeted by a small face smiling sunshine at her. She groaned and pushed up in bed to see nine-year-old Kara crouched on her knees at Krista's side in the Victorian bed.

The human daughter of a familiar within the House was always insistent on waking Krista herself when Callum was calling for a gathering in the common room. The girl had been raised within the House since birth after her mother was killed during a feeding frenzy. She had absolutely no fear of the monsters she mingled with. She got under their feet and under skin, was always in the way and making noise, irritating the most powerful and terrifying of vampires. Yet she was still alive. Why? Absolutely no idea ...

She possessed an ethereal quality to her that drew even the most heartless in and captured their affection. She was unique and potentially useful. Callum, head of this particular branch of the House of Erebus, had intended plans for her in the near future ... once she was grown.

"Krista, wake up," she said in singsong. "You know how cranky Callum gets when you make him wait."

"Mmm." A noncommittal groan escaped her throat as she turned onto her side, giving Kara her back. "Let him be pissed. I didn't get in till dawn on one of his stupid assignments last night."

"Ooh, you mean the Lycan in Prague?" her irritant asked excitedly, laying on her stomach, propping on her elbows, and resting her chin in her hand as she stared at the back of Krista's head with a sunny smile. "How was it? Did he put up much of a fight? Did he give you any scars? Was he scary? Did anyone else die? He is dead, right? You never come back until the target is dead. He's gotta be. So, was it fun?"

"Ugh. Fine!" Krista yelped, tossing the covers away and climbing from bed. "I'm up, I'm up." She spun on her heels and cocked a hip at the child as a wave of dark hair fell over her face, blurring one side of her profile. "Run down and let Cal know you've succeeded and that I'll be down shortly."

"Fine. Don't tell me." Kara made a show of pouting for a second before hopping off the bed and skipping from the room.

"Humans." Disparagingly, she shook her head, even as a small smile played along her lips. She pretended to hate the little runt. But the truth was that Kara was really the only light left in Krista's life.

After dressing and descending to the ground floor, she found her way down the extravagantly hollow corridor that would take her to the only livable room in the entire castle esque mansion that had been her home for the past decade. She pulled the iron circle on the double doors and gave it a good tug to get the door sliding open for her to display the massive commons.

The room was wider than a parking lot with a vaulted ceiling and a balustrade that ran along the third level above. But the room was bare but for the circumference of twenty feet in the very center, where an array of lounging furniture rested over intricate Persian rugs covering the cold marble of the floor. The room was dimmer than usual, meaning Callum was not in a good mood and probably got even less sleep than Krista.

_This will be fun_, she thought wryly, waltzing lazily into the room. Not one of the ten vampires lounging over leather sofas and Queen Ann chairs turned a head when she made her entrance. They were all accustomed to her tardiness. No one was impressed.

She crossed silently and lowered herself onto the loveseat beside Sophia. The closest thing Krista had to a friend. Sophia was tall and blonde with a supermodel figure and a gothic taste in clothes. Her hair was done up fancily while spiral tendrils draped around her face. She looked ready to attend a ball, instead of just rolling out of bed and in desperate need for coffee like Krista was looking at the moment. In fact, half of the room was looking unusually frumpy and scatterbrained. It was obviously a busy night.

Soph cast Krista a sidelong glance as she pulled her legs under her and leaned against the arm of the loveseat. Kara was nowhere to be seen, meaning she'd already managed to irritate Callum enough to be banished from the room. The kid worked fast.

"Ello, love," came the distinctly lower-class Irish voice of Myles, resident weapons expert, as he popped in behind Krista and flung an arm over her shoulders, perching. Myles was turned amidst the rocker alley trash of the early 80s and seemed to be eternally stuck there. He was narrow and lanky with raccoon eyes that made Krista certain he never slept. That and the fact that she'd never once seen him sleeping. Yet he always remained ragged and exhausted. They were closer than the others because he supplied the guns, which to Krista equaled friendly.

"I have some news." There came a sturdy but hollow voice from the center of their gathering.

Krista tore her eyes from Myles and looked up to find Callum standing over them, demanding their undivided attention with just the presence his essence emitted.

"This better be worth separating me from my bed after barely an hour of sleep over a 68 hour period," Krista grumbled hostilely, glaring at him as she leaned her side against Myles's leg and folded her arms. Sophia slapped her thigh lightly in warning, but Krista didn't pay any attention.

Cal's obsidian gaze rolled to her with forced languidness. "That depends, Starr, on whether your life matters to you at all anymore."

That got her attention. Krista stiffened in her seat and gave him her mockery-less attention.

Callum turned to the group as a whole and addressed them as gravely as ever. "The House of the Purebloods has declared reign over the remaining Houses, Erebus included. They've developed another serum that is undetectable and can infiltrate any environment."

"Let me guess," Myles drawled, "another disintegrating gas?"

"No." He shook his head. "We do not know what this one does, but it seems to be some sort of parasitic poison. The Purebloods have taken over both Armaya and Arcane. Officially," he sighed, raised his voice, "Erebus, Leichen, and Chthon are the last remaining Houses still independent from the purebloods. And our standing won't last long under an invasion."

"And we're all still too preoccupied with bickering amongst ourselves to man up and take out the pureblood power once and for all," Sophia added distastefully.

"Not anymore," he proudly announced. His smirk was smug and Krista immediately sensed dread skittering up her spine. "As you all know, Chthon has previously never been willing to reveal the airborne Aurora Virus. The only known method of destroying a pureblood. That decision has been the catalyst for most all of our civil battles this last decade. But that has changed."

A scoff resonated from the other side of the room. Haven, a raven-haired Casanova in a sleek business suit and a faint scar running down the side of one cheekbone, looked incredulous and royally pissed. "Chthon and Erebus are in the middle of negotiations," he told the rest of them, decidedly derogatorily. "They want an alliance."

"We all want an alliance," Callum corrected. "But the settlement is distant. There is a lot of bad blood to put aside. And we have a long way to go."

"But it is an intelligent step," Soph commented. Then added snidely, "Finally."

Myles frowned. "So who is handling this alliance?"

Cal's hard eyes bypassed the rest of them to settle on an already uncomfortable Krista. "We are," he told her specifically. "Head of House Chthon will be making a trip out to begin personal negotiations. We both agreed it would be prudent to handle it this way. More likely to make progress."

Krista went cold. "Marcus is coming here?" Her voice sounded so dry and distant all of a sudden. She barely recognized it. She hadn't said that name in almost ten years ... seen him in thirteen. And now, after all this time, he was coming here. To Erebus. To her.

She faded in and out as the rest of the gathering carried on. Once the others dispersed, she stepped into Callum's path before he could exit. "Krista, I trust you won't let personal feelings affect this merger." It was a deadly warning masked in polite regard. She got it loud and clear.

Stepping closer, she swallowed her anxiety and lowered her voice to a throaty rasp. "Does Marcus know I'm here?"

Unaffected, Callum blinked. "I don't believe so."

A sigh escaped her quick before she could control herself. Whether from relief or horror, she had no idea. "Maybe I should ..." She licked her lips. Looked away as she spoke. "Maybe I should be sent away on assignment for the time being." Then turned back to him with meaning in her eyes. "Just while he's here."

"I think that would be best." He nodded, making her rigid body loosen. Then she froze as he added, "After you are here to greet Chthon's arrival with the rest of your coven. We must represent a united entity."

"Cal—"

"We cannot afford to show any sign of disrespect right now, Starr." His tone went from surface cool to rock hard biting ice in half a second flat. "You _will_ be here. And when it is appropriate for you to leave, I want you out to Amsterdam to retrieve the Night Watchman from Misha."

Swiftly, having said his peace, he sidestepped the woman and disappeared, leaving her alone in the commons with nothing but her panic to comfort her. _Torment_ in truth.

* * *

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**Three**

* * *

"Krista?" Sophia called from the other side of the door.

The woman in question turned from her place at the window and beckoned her friend inside with an absent murmur. She had been lost in thought, staring out at the inky sky above, a familiar locket draped from her hand.

The silver heart locket wasn't something she ordinarily would take out from its keepsake place, but tonight she found herself thinking, and justly so, about the past. It was rightly Isobel's necklace, Marcus's very first and, Krista was sometimes sure, one and _only_ love. It belonged to Isobel originally, and even though Marcus had given it to Krista in a moment of genuine affection, she never really felt like it belonged to her. _Well, it didn't._ Not until that traitorous Chase ripped it off of her during their final fight and tried to take it for herself. A symbolic theft of sorts. That was when Krista had finally felt as if the pendant was rightly her own. That was why she retrieved it after she thought she'd thrown Chase to her death.

"I'm sorry to disturb you," Soph said, "but I wanted you to know that Jensen just returned from Romania."

"And Chthon is expected soon," she added tightly, speaking the unvoiced end of her soft-spoken companion's update. Krista let out a haggard sigh. She'd been hoping _he_ wouldn't return until after Chthon's arrival, by the time Krista was off to Amsterdam and out of reach, but she'd never had that great of luck. And Callum was insistent that they all be there to welcome their guests. "Perfect. He'll be unbearable."

"Maybe not." Sophia offered an elegant shrug, leaning along the cherry wood wall by the doorway, watching as Krista moved across the room to her bureau. "He may behave for the sake of the merger. Jensen is a very rational man."

"Jensen isn't a man at all," Krista bit back in disdain, slipping the locket back into its place in the locked jewelry chest and pulling out the pewter ring encrusted with ruby and emerald Jensen had given her. She slipped it on her finger and turned to her friend.

"Don't be so harsh," she chided cautiously. With her hands clasped gracefully in front of her, she regarded the bristled fledgling with superiority. "He has been a good member of this House for a very long time. He is one of our most powerful and efficient assets. He is also the reason you found a home here with us. Do you think you, an outcast of Chthon, would have ever been accepted here without his influence?"

Now Krista was feeling a little guilty. Damn, why couldn't Sophia just leave her alone with her bitterness? "I know." She sighed in abject defeat. "Never mind."

But the blonde wasn't finished. With a raised brow, she pursed her lips in consideration. "If you dislike his possessiveness so much than why not detach yourself from him?"

"Because, like you said, he is the firm standing in this House, and I don't want to be out on my ass after everything I've done for Callum."

"Don't flatter yourself, darling. Jensen is not that petty."

"We'll see," Krista muttered softly, pulling her corseted minidress over her bra and black trousers, clasped the button at the center of her cleavage. She stepped in front of the full vanity mirror and twisted before it. "Do you mind?" she asked, gesturing towards the set of leather strings in need of lacing up along her lower spine.

Sophia rolled her eyes but moved forward in indulgence. Though not without griping. "If you'll never learn to be creative enough to do this yourself, you're going to need a lady's maid."

"I can figure it out just fine on my own, thank you. But since you're here, there's no reason to go doing it the hard way, now is there?" The cheeky grin she was giving shifted into a wince as her friend gave a good vampire-strength tug that nearly had her ribs cracking. "Ow. Not so much. I just want to be supported. Not strangled."

"It's not like you need to breathe."

"But I do need to move."

Just then there was a knock on the bedchamber door. Without invitation, it swung open to reveal a chiseled and suave man with a smart-ass smirk and suggestively sparkling green eyes. Jensen swaggered in wearing his typical duster jacket and piece. "You ladies about ready?" he asked.

Krista braced herself against the mirror as Sophia gave one more violent tug then stepped back. "For?" she stiffly prompted.

"The parade has arrived." He smiled sarcastically and spread his arms wide. "Chthon awaits our presentation. And Callum will not be impressed if we keep them waiting while we dillydally with our dresses."

"Kill me now," Krista groaned, resting her forehead against the cool glass of the mirror.

He merely chuckled. "I don't think that would impress them either."

Taking unnecessarily deep breaths, she focused on centering herself, ignoring the irrational and highly unfair imagery in her head that was currently urging her to do something violent and gory to the beautiful man behind her.

"Go on ahead of us," Sophia ordered, shooting him a half amused look of censure for his lack of pity. "We'll follow shortly."

Without comment, Jensen obeyed his elder and took leave.

Once it was just the two of them again, she laid a gentle hand on the tense shoulder of the young one, feeling what could not be seen, which was a faint trembling of her deceptively delicate frame. "This must be harder for you than I initially anticipated." Though impressively old, Sophia had always had a womanly way about her, a compassionate countenance that somehow managed to beat the odds and hold itself intact against the jading edge of time. Softly, a whisper of sound on a cool exhale of air, she says, "I know what it is like to bear the cross of an impossible love." Then, going brisk, she dusts her hands down the flared shape of the other woman. "That being said, we have greater concerns than sentiments, so I expect you to man-up and do your duty."

Which was exactly what she needed to hear.

"Let's go." With a resolved huff, Krista pulled away from the glass and turned to glide purposefully out of the room. She took her time with her pace, but she refused to stop until she'd made it down to the cavernous great hall.

It was a room not unlike the commons, although the only adorning feature was the grand maple wood table. Seated at the head was Callum. Beside him was Haven on his right side and Callum's mate Lilliana on the other. Others lined the walls, kept in the shadows. Jensen was standing behind Haven. Sophia instantly moved to take her place, hovering on her feet beside Lilliana, but Krista stepped reluctantly into the space and joined Jensen's side, keeping a safe distance between them. Myles caught her eye from across the room and sent her a playful wink. She smiled just a sliver of an expression, a portion of tension effectively relieved from within her, and dipped her chin to hide it.

They were frozen like sentinels at their posts. Anticipation was thick in the air around them. A few drawn moments later, a door off from the foyer glided open and in strode Jonas. Behind him trailed a horde of six vampires. At the very head was none other than cool and aloof Marcus van Sciver.

Krista froze, unable to move or think or breathe. Luckily, her heart didn't need to pump to keep her alive, or it would have posed a problem.

The Chthonian vampires filed fluidly, spreading in circumference to match Erebus, but Marcus's azure eyes found hers and his ever graceful stride abruptly faltered. Shock lanced through him visibly. A slight but perceptible crack in the marble stone casing of his impeccable control.

She did her best not to fidget under that heavy piercing gaze. She refused to look away as long as he held her. She took her time refamiliarizing herself with the sight of him. He still exuded power and authority and confidence. He still wore the same sleek suits and his eyes were no more accessible to anyone other than her than they had been.

Thirteen years had done nothing to him. He looked exactly the same. The curse of being what they are.

Suddenly, Cal rose, intently oblivious, and the world intruded on their connection. "Welcome," he uttered coolly.

Marcus forced his crystalline stare from her and took in a deep breath, subtly reclaiming the cold composure that had fled the moment he stepped into the room. "Callum ..."

"Van Sciver." The leader of Erebus nodded once. Merely a faint regal dip of his head.

Time flowed stiffly but uninterrupted from then onward. Krista did her best to fade into the background, camouflage along the wall, but every time she'd attempt to inch away unnoticed, Jensen's hand would appear at the small of her back, halting her into stillness like an errant child.

Marcus never once looked her way again. Instead, he focused so solely on Callum that he dared not acknowledge any the rest of his surroundings. And she watched with a heavy heart. Memories flooded back to her, driving her to the point where she just wanted to flee, find the first seedy bar she came across, get utterly plastered until she couldn't even remember her own name anymore. The voices around her faded into oblivion, only to be replaced by words that haunted her dreams.

"_It hurts so much," she confided brokenly, "Being alone."_

"_You don't have to be, Krista. Ever."_

He had promised her that. He had lied.

"You want a seat at our council in return for your defense against an invasion?" Callum's controlled voice filtered through her reverie, an underlying edge of skepticism detectable.

_Of course he does_, Krista thought. What were they expecting? Chthon was strong enough to withstand a full-assailed attack. The Purebloods weren't powerful enough yet to take on Chthon. They had no need of Erebus. _We need them_. _Why would they ally freely without anything substantial in it for them?_ she mused.

And of course Marcus went on to point that out specifically.

She was busying herself imagining various scenarios of how she could escape when Myles managed to catch her eye from across the room. He held a finger up to his ear, activating by touch the com-link inserted there. She frowned questioningly and he jerked his head towards the door. Trying to communicate something. But what? Krista flipped on her com and raised her brow at him.

"Kara sent a message to your room," he told her in hushed tones. "She's in some kind of trouble ..."

All turmoil flooded from Krista and a one-track conviction cleared her mind. Without thought to propriety or procedure, she detached from Jensen's restraining grip and slipped hurriedly from the room. All eyes turned to her retreating form but no one commented. Myles cringed sympathetically at the punishing look on Callum's face. In her periphery, she noticed but couldn't care, instead blurred off, making it up to her room in a millisecond. She found the flashing message on her beside table. Text scrolled across the screen. Sure enough, Kara was frantic and calling for help, saying she went out to the centre pavilion unescorted and gotten into trouble.

_Please come quick._

Krista scrubbed a hand over her face and hissed out a worried breath. Kara knew she wasn't allowed out in the centre without a companion. Slipping on her daggers and the sidearm she'd left in the room, not wanting any antagonism for the meet, she proceeded to slip from the mansion. Grateful for the temporary pardon from her painful past. And what was sure to be a painful near future. Of the physical variety when Cal had anything to say about it. Which was always.

* * *

**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

**Four**

* * *

Kara and Krista slinked side by side back into the mansion a short while later to be greeted by a stony lynch mob of Callum, Lilliana, Jensen, Myles, and Marcus all gathered in the common room. At their appearance, Cal came swiftly to his feet, his mien going stormy and volatile just as Krista stepped into the room. He blurred into motion, a super speed snake striking, and was standing in front of her before she could blink. Anger whirled off of him in curls to wrap around the pair. Instead of hedging behind Krista like any normal 9-year-old would react, Kara squared her shoulders and jutted her chin. But there was timidity in her eyes. The woman was perversely proud and had to work to conceal that fact.

"Kare," she said, her voice quiet but firm, her gaze never straying from her _master. _"Go up to your room. Your tutor is probably waiting."

Dangerously low, he warned, "Do not dismiss her."

Krista cocked a brow, held her expression closed as she asked, "Do you need her for something?"

He stared her down, not for the first time, but she was never going to bow. When he realized this, he turned his focus onto Kara, waved her away without a word. She glanced at Krista unsurely before scurrying from the room. Callum zeroed in on her even before the door shut behind the child.

Krista braced herself for fallout, having the sudden knowledge that she had crossed the line without even recognizing it. After all these hard years, the world she lived in now was still not engrained into her marrow.

Cal slanted towards her, his mouth nearing hers, his eyes burning into her like blazing danger signals. "What am I going to do with you?"

"What's your problem?" she wondered, forcibly mild, folding her arms and stiffening her spine. She wanted to arch back but wouldn't let herself. Everyone was watching. _Marcus_ was watching.

"My problem, Starr, is your blatant lack of regard for authority. Why is it you think you can ignore my words?"

"What was I supposed to do?" She sighed, glanced away with a tired shake of her head that had dark curls swaying against her cheeks, falling over her brow to obscure her features. "The kid was in trouble."

"So you run off without a word. Disrupting—"

An abrupt flare of the irritation that had previously just been simmering made her surge up stiff from her exhausted hunch and snap, "I didn't have the time to play to your—" The back of his hand collided sharply with her jaw and snapped her neck aside. Her hair fell back into her face to shield her from the rest of the room.

A guttural hiss escaped Marcus as his inner instincts tried to surface. A sire's possessiveness and protectiveness could never fully be quashed. He pulled control back over himself instantly, his shining eyes dulling back to their normal blue and his fangs receding. Jensen glanced his way warily, only to find Marcus already coolly composed and leaning back against the hearth with his hands in his pockets, but the momentary glimpse was enough to make it clear to every witness there was a weakness in there somewhere to be exploited and it left him royally pissed. At her. At himself. _Mostly_ at himself.

Blood welled in the corner of her mouth as she turned back to Callum, her cheek stinging and her skin raw. Krista's nails dug into her palms, bleeding her, as she struggled to suppress her angry defiance and humiliation. This was just another of Cal's shows of power. He never liked the way she incidentally showed him up by disregarding the ways of their life. Krista knew this. And rationally she knew she had to bite her tongue and suffer through his payback in order to avoid dealing with certain realities she'd rather ignore. She wasn't about to be cast out by another "family" as long as she could help it. And besides, a little slap was nothing compared to what he could do, what he wanted to do if she was reading that fire in his eyes correctly. So she'd suffer with a smile.

If that smile happened to be a bit smarmy, a lot sardonic, who could blame her? "Tastes like Tuesday," she drawled, voice perfectly neutral, as she licked a speck of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. Made it into a pointed gesture of defiance and passive-aggressive retribution as their stares stayed searingly locked.

Her master was blatantly struggling for restraint by now and this pleased her immensely. "Don't interrupt me."

And her fun was over. Time to grovel. She pulled back to raise her chin at him, using a finger to brush her hair back. "Sorry I acted without thought," she bit out carefully, poorly masking the irritated reluctance in her tone. Moving her neck to get it back into place, Krista quirked a brow at him and tried to force her eyes to lighten. "So," she took in a breath, "How did it go?"

Cal stared for a long moment in deliberation before scoffing, shoving his hands in his pockets, shaking his head at her. He sidestepped Krista and started for the door. Lilliana leapt up to trail after him. Over his shoulder, he called to her. "Be ready to leave at sunset tomorrow. Jensen and Haven will be going with you. I expect you to settle up with Misha for me before you return."

"Oh." She flipped her hair to glance over her shoulder at him. "That should be easy." The sarcasm in her voice went ignored. When she turned back to the room, Myles and Jensen were both staring meaningfully at her and Marcus was doing everything he could to avoid her gaze. "Myles," she called, defiant to her own awkwardly emotional rollercoaster. "Add the two-sixty and the equilibrator to my bag, will ya?"

"No doubt," he chimed curtly, using it as his cue to brush past her and out of the room.

Jensen spent a second staring at her before he turned to Marcus in all polite business. "Let me know if your accommodations are not acceptable." Marcus ignored him. Being sensible, Jensen didn't wait for acknowledgement before he started to leave. He did however pause at Krista's side and lean into her ear. "If you need me ..." He left the rest unsaid and politely excused himself.

As it sunk in just how alone she suddenly was with her sire, Krista wondered regretfully why she hadn't stuck with Jensen and followed him out. The room had effectively emptied and it was entirely too obvious with what purpose. Her cheek still stung but the mark had faded. She wiped all of the rest of the blood from her mouth with her thumb, resisted the urge to suck it off, instead just rubbed it off on her jacket. As she did it, though, his gaze flicked up to hers ... finally. As soon as they connected, everything froze.

Krista had the sudden and barely resistible urge to throw herself at him. Beg him to forget everything but her and him together and how right it felt.

All of these years he'd literally cut her off, left her drowning without buoyancy, suffocating without air, freefalling, so thirsty, and so alone. He even managed to cut their connection somehow. She hadn't shared a dream with him since the night he'd sent her away. That was the thing that drove her most insane.

Urges and desires and yearnings she'd impossibly kept in check without him near suddenly overwhelmed her. She opened her mouth to speak. To ... _what?_ But she couldn't think. She was drowning again. And like a great coward, she stepped back and spun, practically running from the room at the cost of her pride.

She didn't allow herself to stop until she reached her chamber and let herself fall back against the door with a heavy exhalation. Her knees shook. She rubbed both hands over her face and through her hair even as she slid to the floor against the door. Her knees at her chest and her hands in her hair, Krista closed her eyes and lowered her head. Two opposing positions plagued her mind for the night to come.

_Marcus, I'm sorry. I still love you. Please don't leave me here._

And ...

_You lied. You bastard. You destroyed my life, made me rely on you and only you, promised an eternity together, never alone, and promptly ripped it away from me, leaving me out in the cold, alone, desolate, desperate._

She used to despise herself for loving him. For needing him. He was the monster that heartlessly murdered her beloved brother. He was the bastard that ended her human life and turned her into a monster. He was her tormentor and savior, her damnation and salvation, yet she couldn't even muster it up to hate herself for it anymore. She'd accepted it as the hand she'd been dealt and no longer tried to deny herself of that. Not that it had ever done her any good.

_You bastard. How could you do this to me?_

* * *

Krista sensed him even before she heard the soft click of the door shutting behind him, before the scent of old spice and musk hit her olfactory senses, before the air stirred around her.

She hadn't known he'd come. But she had hoped. Despite herself, she had hoped.

She pushed up in bed, blinked the blurriness from her eyes, and frowned at the doorway as he stood there. "Marcus?" Was she still asleep? She didn't think so. It felt real. Realer than anything else.

He moved closer.

Then he was on her, mouth to mouth, hands to body, skin to skin, and she was on fire. She opened invitingly, eagerly, and twisted her legs around his waist, her hands in his golden hair, her lips moving with his, her back arching for more. She pulled him down to her, fully flush, and begged for him with every move, every sound, every unneeded breath.

"Krista," he breathed yearningly into her neck, an exclamation stronger than anything words could have or would have expressed. His hand was in her hair, brushing it back, claiming her face, covering the nonexistent bruise along her cheek. Callum dared to mark what was _his_. His thumb hooked under her jaw and his fingertips dug into her cheek as his other arm wrapped around her waist, holding her to him, possessing her. It was an easy rhythm that came back all too urgently to them both.

It was too real, too intoxicating, too overwhelming, and there was no control, just rich abandon.

He pushed into her without hesitation and Krista cried out, gasping for air, flinging upright in bed to find that she was utterly alone. But the touches still lingered over her skin, marks and proof, affects on her body still remained.

How long had it been since they'd shared dreams? _Thirteen years._ She knew this. Yet she remembered easily. Maybe he couldn't block her out when he was so close to her in proximity. Or maybe he had intentionally invaded her sleep. Either way, Krista fumbled her way to the shower and let the heat burn her skin raw, washing away the lingering affects on her mind as well.

It was hours after dawn. But she needed to get out. She needed to run free and feed. The sun wouldn't permit her that need. Instead, she settled for slinking down unnoticed to the training room in the underground level and having a rigorous workout that was sure to cleanse her mind and soul and send lively aches throughout her sore rigid body. And it would be a great release.

Except she never really had that great of luck. So _of course_ something interrupts.

* * *

**TBC**


End file.
